


Inked Petals

by MidnightMew



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Aromantic Asexual Natasha Romanov, Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Spoilers, M/M, Multi, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-06
Updated: 2018-07-06
Packaged: 2019-06-06 07:49:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15190160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MidnightMew/pseuds/MidnightMew
Summary: Steve Rogers had purple lilac flowers all the way up his left arm and extending down onto his chest. Despite the fact that Bucky had died when he was still young, the two had known each other for a long time so the soulmate markings still had a long time to grow. Many older couples had flowers all over their bodies, stems and leaves extending down their torsos and legs. But this was as far as Steve's markings would go. He supposed he was lucky, so many people never met their soulmates, and remained with only a black seed on their wrist for their entire life. Or worse, many met their soulmates only for a few weeks, at the end of one of their lives. A brief glimpse at happiness, at fulfillment before it was snatched away. Steve was grateful at least for the time he got to spend with Bucky before he fell. They may not have had long, but the time they spent together was good.





	Inked Petals

**Author's Note:**

> I've done a soulmate AU like this before for a different fandom and I have previously stated that although I think this soulmate AU is my original idea, I have no way of knowing and I'm sure there are other soulmate AU's with many similarities.  
> The basics of this AU are that people are born with a mark of a 'seed' on their left wrist which grows when they meet their soulmate. It only grows when they are in close proximity to their soulmate and represents their relationship and will die if one or the pair dies. The type of flower represents their soulmate.  
> A full list of the flower meanings in order at the end for anyone curious.

Steve Rogers had purple lilac flowers all the way up his left arm and extending down onto his chest. Despite the fact that Bucky had died when he was still young, the two had known each other for a long time so the soulmate markings still had a long time to grow. 

Many older couples had flowers all over their bodies, stems and leaves extending down their torsos and legs. But this was as far as Steve's markings would go. 

He supposed he was lucky, so many people never met their soulmates, and remained with only a black seed on their wrist for their entire life. Or worse, many met their soulmates only for a few weeks, at the end of one of their lives. A brief glimpse at happiness, at fulfillment before it was snatched away. 

Steve was grateful at least for the time he got to spend with Bucky before he fell. They may not have had long, but the time they spent together was good. 

At the end of the plant trailing down onto his chest was a singular dead flower. That one had appeared in the day Bucky died, and it had been the last flower that grew. All the others were still alive and vibrant, the Bucky he remembered. Only this one signified the end. 

 

Natasha Romanoff did not have a soulmate. Her wrist was bare, no seed for any flowers to grow from. She claimed she was happy like this. She was perfectly fulfilled by platonic relationships, and had no desire for anyone in a romantic sense. 

Steve occasionally caught her looking a moment too long at some of the other avengers flowers. But she assured him, she was merely curious about them given the lack of her own.

Steve wished that he could be as happy as she was without his own soulmate, but he was not like she was. She had never wanted one, whereas he had to endure knowing that he should've had the rest of his life with Bucky, and it was ripped away from him. 

 

Tony Stark's arms were covered in yellow gladiolus flowers. Steve had to look that one up. Most people had a basic grasp of flowers and their meanings, for what type of flower you had was said to represent your soulmate. 

Tony’s soulmate was Rhodey, and the first time Steve met Rhodey he knew straight away that he was the reason Tony had the yellow flowers trailing down his arm. The two were utterly in love with each other and Steve couldn't imagine a more perfect pair. 

Something slightly unusual Steve had noticed was that many of the flowers on Tony's arm were damaged, none of them dead, but not all of them in the best of shape. Steve supposed that was what happened when both halves of the couple spent their lives getting injured in some way or another. 

He didn't want to make assumptions, but given Tony’s playboy reputation, it was a safe guess to make to think that not all the damaged flowers had come from physical hurt. 

There was one flower on Rhodey’s shoulder that stood out to Steve in particular, it was in the worst shape out of all of them. It looked like it was almost dead, several petals missing and the rest severely shriveled like it had been left in the sun without water for weeks on end. 

The flowers around it also looked in rather bad shape, but this one was the only one that looked as close to death. Steve brought it up to Rhodey one day, who told him it was not his place to tell and that if he wanted to know he should ask Tony. 

So he asked Tony, and Tony ducked his head, and muttered 'Afghanistan,’ and left it at that. Steve put it on his mental list of things to remember about Tony. One, don't touch him without asking him first. Even a handshake. Two, do not, under any circumstances soak him in water. The avengers learned that the hard way. And now three, don't ask him about Afghanistan or any of the damaged flowers. And Steve never brought the flowers up again.

 

Clint was the only avenger with more than one soulmate. Both of the flowers had started on his left wrist, as was normal but not the only possibility, but given that he had two plants growing and they took up twice as much space they had already extended down his torso and over to his right arm. 

He had the delicate, white edelweiss flowers that belonged to Phil Coulson as well as the blue hyacinths of Laura Barton. He had met Laura long before Phil, and so her hyacinths took up far more space than the small edelweiss flowers that filled the gaps between them. 

Steve wondered what it would be like to have more than one soulmate, it seemed like it would be hard to balance the relationship, especially with Clint's given that he had married Laura as he had thought the second seed merely a fluke that would not grow into anything, but they managed to make it work. 

Laura and Phil didn't have each others soulmarks, and weren't together, but they were good friends and as far as Steve knew, neither seemed to harbour immense jealousy for the other. He guessed that they had a way of doing things that worked for them, and they were happy together, so what did it matter if their situation wasn't exactly the traditional one.  

 

Bruce had a couple of flowers up his wrist, though not as many as most of the others, the golden yellow coreopsis flowers blooming large though they were small in number. 

The flowers were for Thor, and the Asgardian still spent most of his time off the earth, so they did not have much of a chance to grow. 

Thor didn't have flowers of his own, but given the way Bruce's grew only when he was around there was no doubt the two were soulmates. Steve wondered what that must be like for them. Bruce seemed perfectly content with being the only one in the relationship with the flowers, and Thor seemed fascinated with the ones that grew on his lovers arm.

Soulmarks did not exist on Asgard and were one of the topics that Thor was constantly asking questions about. He seemed fascinated about the culture surrounding them, and those who did not have them or had more than one.

 

It was after New York, and their lives were slowly getting back to normal. Steve had taken to running in the mornings, it helped him take his mind off things and though he probably didn't need to keep fit he didn't want to test this theory by not being ready when his next mission came up.

It was during one of these morning runs when he met Sam Wilson, but it wasn't until later in the day when Natasha noticed the new growth on his arm. It was right at his wrist, where the seed that sprouted Bucky's flowers was, and it was coming out of what he had previously assumed to be a freckle. He couldn't believe it, the universe seemed to be giving him a second chance. Of course whoever it was couldn't replace Bucky, but maybe they could have something different. It was a daffodil, a very, very tiny daffodil. And Steve knew that that symbolised new beginnings. It seemed so fitting. 

If you took the time to look up flower meanings they were almost always perfect to the relationship and the person they stood for. He wondered who the person could be that had caused this new growth on his wrist, his mind jumped immediately to Sam, the man he had met running. 

But of course it could be anyone, even someone he walked passed in the street, he would know for certain if he saw Sam again, and as far as he could remember the other man didn't have any flowers already. He ran in a t shirt with short sleeves which showed his bare arms so provided he wasn't part of the minority of those without soulmates, there was a chance he could be Steve's. He didn't know why he was so fixated on it being Sam, but after knowing him for only a few moments he couldn't help but feel that they would be a good fit. 

 

When he saw Sam again it was under very different circumstances, and he noticed that he had several bluebells on his arm, their light blueish purple colour standing out against his deep brown skin, the same flowers as had been on Bucky's arm. 

Steve told him that they were soulmates, and the smile that formed on Sam's face could've lit up the world. It was taught in schools that his soulmate had been James Buchanan Barnes, so Sam seemed pretty shocked understandably, but he showed Sam his arm with the two intertwining sets of flowers and they agreed that they would go out for coffee when this entire mess was over. 

Natasha was pleased he had found Sam, but was growing impatient with them, especially when they had more pressing business to attend to. So they left the topic for now, they would have time to talk about everything later. First, they had to deal with the winter soldier. 

 

After their fight with the soldier, who Steve now knew was Bucky, Steve realised another one of the lilacs had grown down onto his chest. It was in such bad shape he had almost mistaken it for the dead one at first, but no, this one was new. It looked awful, he must be barely alive with all that Hydra was doing to him, but it was good to have reassurance that it was actually Bucky and not just his mind playing tricks on him. Soulmarks didn't lie. He went to find Sam and found him examining his wrist intently. 

'Is this his?’ he asked Steve, gesturing to a tiny lilac that was growing from his wrist amongst the few bluebells he had from Steve. 'Bucky’s, I mean?’ 

'Looks like it,’ Steve said, gesturing to the new lilac on his chest. 

It was a different situation than Clint's- the only other person he knew personally that had more than one soulmate- he had two soulmates but his soulmates were just friends. The set up for this seemed triangular, well it would be if they ever managed to get Bucky back from Hydra. They would find a way to make it work, the three of them, but first they needed to save Bucky. 

 

Several years later, Bucky was living in Wakanda, a lot had happened since, but he was recovering slowly from the aftermath of being the winter soldier. Most of the damage would never the undone. He couldn't give back the lives he took while under the control of Hydra, and no matter how often it was reiterated that none of it had been his fault, he couldn't help feeling horrendously guilty. Steve and Sam, along with Natasha were still taking down the remnants of hydra they still managed to take time to visit Wakanda.

Bucky's left arm had no flowers on it. He had Steve's bluebells extending down on to his neck, but none of Sam’s for he didn't have a wrist for them to grow from.Steve kept optimistically suggesting that they would grow down his chest eventually like Steve's did, he would just have to give it time. Sam wasn't sure if this was the case as there was no mark on his wrist for them to grow from, for Steve's had already grown past his arm when it was amputated. But Sam found himself not minding, he had Bucky's flowers and as long as they both loved each other, that was all he needed.

So here they sat, the three of them in a Wakandan field, far away from any other people alone in the world with only each other for company. Steve was painting flowers on to Bucky's metal arm, bluebells and daffodils in blues, purples, yellows and oranges more vibrant than life. They were heavily stylised, but Bucky preferred them that way. He could tell they were done by Steve looking at the art style alone and if he couldn't have his actual soulmark flowers on his arm then at least they were painted by his soulmate.

He asked Sam to do one, and though he protested saying he was rubbish at art and would mess it up, he eventually managed to get him to agree to a single daffodil. It wasn't as neat as Steve's but Bucky didn't care, it was from his soulmate so that was all that mattered. The three of them sat like that, cuddled together, being careful not to nudge the drying paint on Bucky's arm, for a long time. And for a short while, the three of them were truly happy.

 

And then everything changed. The worst happened and Steve was left alone in the world without either one of his soulmates. The flowers on his arm remained each with one at the end disintegrating off into millions of tiny pieces. Like those they represented had done. It pained him to look at them now, they served as a reminder of what had happened to the two people he cared about most in the world. 

As the remaining avengers tried to get the world back on track, he took to wearing long sleeve shirts and not looking too long in the mirror. He had lost Bucky for the second time, and had lost Sam as well. There had to be a way to reverse this. But he didn't know how, and be had no idea what to do without the people he had trusted most by his side. 

He guessed he would have to do what he had always done. He pushed the pain down as far as he could ignore it, he couldn't let this stop him from doing what needed to be done. He got back up, he was never one to give up, he had to keep going no matter the circumstances, he had to keep fighting. Because even if it was improbable that he could do anything, it would be impossible if he didn't try. 

So Steve Rogers ignored the pain he felt in his left arm, and got on with saving the world. If only for another day like those ones in Wakanda.

**Author's Note:**

> Lilacs (purple)- first love  
> Gladiolus (yellow)- strength of character, faithfulness, honour  
> Edelweiss- courage, devotion  
> Hyacinths (blue)- constancy of love  
> Coreopsis (yellow)- always cheerful  
> Daffodil- new beginnings  
> Bluebells- humility, kindness


End file.
